And I Call the Sea to Swallow Me Whole
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: In the fantasy world, things always came to the happily ever after ending. But reality wasn't so simple, nor so picture-perfect.
1. Prompt 001: Dream

**A/N: **For the 100_tables challenge on lj: using the 5 prompt table one: nothing's real.

And some Oikawa fiction, considering he barely gets any. ^^

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**And I Call the Sea to Swallow Me Whole  
Prompt #001: Dream**

The scent of freedom was intoxicating.

His office stood on the highest floor; from its window he could see the world spread beneath him. It was fuzzed, out of focus. The computer in front of him instead displayed clear images. Word documents opened and screens partway filled. A programme file minimised leftmost.

He typed a few more words for his status report and returned to the black screen thoughtfully. It didn't matter should a co-worker creep up behind him and attempt to understand his work…or undermine it. The language was more complex than most could handle, even if the company did focus entirely on the virtual world of the computer.

They did not have his dreams though, and without those they were grounded upon reality. Virtuality as thus was far beyond them, but for him…

He watched the new life take form. A few more keys, and then –

He repressed the childish cry for joy and saved the file. He would show it to Hiroki later.

For now, there was the breeze billowing through his open window, and the reminder of the much purer air in his dreams. Air without odd and unaccepting looks. Air without frowns and disapproval and loneliness. The air of a world that for the longest time had only existed in a dream…

…but soon would in reality.


	2. Prompt 002: Nightmare

**A/N: **For the 100_tables challenge on lj: using the 5 prompt table one: nothing's real.

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**And I Call the Sea to Swallow Me Whole  
Prompt #002: Nightmare**

_It couldn't be true. It just couldn't be_.

But it was, and the cold unfeeling stone before him proved it. The smell of flowers, fresh and old upon a grave. Of incense lit day after day by people who came to pay their respects. Ashes blown away by the wind. Jackets flapping in the stilted air.

Air that was now heavy, clouded with the nightmarish reality.

On his laptop screen was the masterpiece he had never gotten the chance to share. The spider, created by his own DNA and the language he had spent his entire career coming to understand. It snapped its jaws, moved…was a reality like that which had spoke out to them in their childhood days, lost in the clouds that hovered over them like a dark mast.

No, not them. Him. Just him. And the dream that had been ripped in half and warped forevermore.

He snapped the screen shut. Once a beautiful creature, his own creation, it had become a hellish fiend that painted beauty into ruin: a nightmare creator, created by him.


	3. Prompt 003: Daydream

**A/N: **For the 100_tables challenge on lj: using the 5 prompt table one: nothing's real.

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**And I Call the Sea to Swallow Me Whole  
Prompt #003: Daydream**

It was easier, being alone. There was no-body to say he lived a lie. Nobody to rebuke him. Nobody to tell him to get on with his life.

And he didn't need to explain either. Didn't need to say he _was_ living. Living so he could fulfil both their dreams. In the day he kept his job, working quickly to complete the assignments and freeing up time to work to his own agenda. The spider was soon joined by a mummy, a work of art much like the first, and for a moment he imagined himself and Hiroki in their places, living in a world other than this, a world far more beautiful…

He saw blue skies, unclouded by pollution and high rising buildings. He smelt green grass without a trace of ash. Then he blinked and it all vanished, but the little pixel characters and background still existed, and he set about attempting to pierce it and reach the world in his waking dream.


	4. Prompt 004: Illusion

**A/N: **For the 100_tables challenge on lj: using the 5 prompt table one: nothing's real.

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**And I Call the Sea to Swallow Me Whole  
Prompt #004: Illusion**

The world was there. Right _there_ and yet he could not reach. It was not through lack of trying; his arms stretched towards the swirling mass of colours on the horizon and the shapes he could see vanishing into it, but to no avail. His feet remained firmly on the ground; the light refused to reach out to him, swallow him –

Like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, he could see it but not touch. Like an illusion, except it was _there_, and real, and everything they – he and Hiroki – had ever hoped for lived within that rainbow.

He shouted up to the sky, to take him too.

That wasn't an illusion. Wasn't a dream. It was reality. His reality. _Their_ reality. But it was out of their reached.

He screamed in frustration, and anguish. Hiroki crumbled in his hands.


	5. Prompt 005: Hallucination

**A/N: **For the 100_tables challenge on lj: using the 5 prompt table one: nothing's real.

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**And I Call the Sea to Swallow Me Whole  
Prompt #005: Hallucination**

A voice whispered in his ear.

It was unexpected. So focused as he had been he had not felt the numbness crawling through his face and neck, tingling his ears. And at first he refuted it; voices had no place in interrupting, but then –

'Do you really want to go to the Digital World?'

His head tilted up of its own accord, taking in the magnificent mountains and lush green plains. Something cool caressed his face; he closed his eyes, wondering for a moment if it was the wind of that strange and wondrous world caressing his face.

The question was repeated. The sensation fled, replaced by numbness, like the hollowness left behind after a mirage is proven false.

'If you really want to go…' The voice was soft, gentle and alluring. 'I can take you there.'

His ear froze. It didn't matter if he lived in a hallucination thereafter. The Digital World was _there_, and soon, he would be as well.

His dream would soon become a reality. His dream…


End file.
